Crystalverse Drabbles
by diayang
Summary: Potentially A series of oneshots set in Crystal'verse. Feat. Barricade and OC.
1. Chapter 1

Title: Crystal'verse Drabbles  
Author: diayang  
Rating: T  
Pairing: Barricade/OC  
Summary: Life goes on. Sort of.  
Disclaimer: Transformers © Hasbro/Dreamworks.  
A/N: Quick and dirty drabble(s).

* * *

It was a rare thing for them to have a cop walk into the building, mused the receptionist. Even rarer that said cop would look pretty darned good, too. She kept one eye on him as he approached, busying herself with needless sorting – the paperclips were all silver, anyway, who needed to colour-code them? - appreciating the easy gait and authoritative air that hung about the man, with his dark hair tucked neatly under the square cap, shoulders outlined by the sharp formal cut of his uniform.

Hell, she thought. Now why couldn't her own man look like that? As he drew closer, she swiveled to him, offered a smile.

"May I help you, sir?"

And he smiled in return, just a lazy upward quirk of his lips. "Yes, I'm looking for a Calleigh Thornton."

"Just one second," she said, adjusting her headset out of habit. "Oh, I do hope it's nothing serious."

"We're just checking up on a case, ma'am, nothing to worry about."

"I'll let her know."

* * *

"Thornton, this is Danes from Reception, there's a police officer here to see you - "

Calleigh stared for a full five seconds at nothing in particular, that sinking feeling all too familiar. _Could just be a cop, like a normal cop, cop_, she cajoled herself, fighting down threads of panic and 'fuck no not again'. Could be...

"What's his name?"

"Says he's Officer Cade, he, uh..." Danes coughed delicately at that, poor woman hardly needed reminding of that strange case. "Says he worked... you know. The uh, case - "

"Officer Cade, is he?" she growled into the phone. "Okay. Okay. Fine. Danes, you see the patrol car he drove in on anywhere?"

"Well, I - "

"Is it a Sal – does it look like a Mustang? Black and white, numbers 643?"

"Calleigh, the man's just walked in, I - "

"Tell ya what. You go check, Danes, with your own eyes, and if it's a Mustang – looks like one, smells like one, feels like one, whatever - tell'im to fuck off, I'm busy."

"Thornton - "

Resolute, Calleigh slammed down the phone, mood souring with one fine snap of temper.

* * *

Below, Danes winced at the woman's temper, and offered the man a sympathetic look. "I'm sorry, she's... a bit busy at the moment, can I take a message instead?"

Officer Cade's dark eyes narrowed just a fraction, and he leant on the counter. "Danes, is it? Why don't you call her back, put 'er on? Lemme talk to 'er. It's important, and I don't want to have to inconvenience anyone by having to get 'er to come down to the station."

Bloody hell, and a hint of a southern drawl. Danes hesitated only the briefest of moments – in the spirit of cooperation with the law – before she rang back.

* * *

"Calleigh," came the smooth, low voice over the phone.

"... _you_," she hissed, back stiffening.

"Come down for a coffee. Take a break."

"Oh for Chrissakes. Fuck off, busy trying to make ends meet here, you piece of shit - "

"Do you want me to fetch you?"

"Do you want me to lose my job?" snarled Calleigh, snatching up a folder, thumbing through it. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Now she'd be spazzy all day, wind up with stiff shoulders and neck, and possibly a headache. He was going to pay.

"I thought you hated your job."

"I don't, it pays, now fuck off."

"Calle."

"No."

"That's it, I'm coming up."

"You - God, you are such an asshole! No! No, I'm not going anywhere, I'd like to finish for the day, damn you! I'm behind enough as it is, I'm not talking on company time, if you want any you better damned well wait till I get off work! Ass!"

"Calle."

"Nuh uh. Nope. No. Not happening. Look, if you're that desperate? I hear knotholes in trees work just as well," she finished acidly, snapping out papers. "Hanging up. Right now. Mess with me and I'll slash your tyres, jerk."

Despite it all, the smooth chuckle still wound through her body and settled low in her gut. And she nearly hated him for it.

"Alright, you said it," he conceded. "Watch your inbox, then."

"Watch my – hey – hey, wait a sec - "

He hung up, and she snarled at the phone, before slamming it down again, oblivious to the uncertain, half-afraid look that moved across the expressions of several coworkers and her boss. They shared a few glances with each other, then went about work as usual, not wanting to get their heads verbally bitten off in the most spectacular fashion.

In the meantime, Danes sighed as the cop with the cute ass walked back out. Up in the office block, Calleigh swore to kill Barricade slowly, and painfully, if he infected her work computer with weird shit(i.e. porn) once more.


	2. Chapter 2

Title: Crystal'verse Drabbles  
Author: diayang  
Rating: T  
Pairing: Barricade/OC  
Summary: Life goes on. Sort of.  
Disclaimer: Transformers © Hasbro/Dreamworks.  
A/N: Quick and dirty drabble(s).

* * *

"Hey, Calle," he smirked winningly, offering yet another garment as the woman poked her head out from the dressing room. She rolled her eyes at him, obligingly took the dress from his hands, and vanished back into the small space, muttering under her breath about things he couldn't quite catch. The saleswoman hovered rather nervously around the pair of them, before he sent her flitting off with a meaningful glare.

"You shithead," came the nearly affectionate growl as she stepped out, balanced just so in the high heels he'd slipped onto her feet himself. The 'form let his gaze travel up the length of her legs in the black silk stockings, over the sharp flare of the skirt and the way the folds fell in controlled chaos around her legs. 'Cade quirked an eyebrow at her, eyeing the stretch of the material over her hips and waist, the swell of her bosom enticingly revealed by the square-cut neckline, milky skin standing out in stark contrast to all that black. "It's missing something, though."

"Something red?" he offered, striding forward to curve his hands around her waist, pressing into the lush body. Primus damn but he wanted to throw those skirts up and fuck her against his hood. Maybe later...

"Yeah? Like your optics?" Calleigh snarked, leaning into him just a little, surveying them both in the mirror. 'Cade smirked again, dipped his mouth to her throat, chuckling at the outraged hiss from Calleigh when he nipped and suckled at skin, her hands flying out to steady herself, push at him.

"Fuckwit! Quit it!"

"Now it's perfect," he purred, lapping over the raised red mark on her skin, the hickey standing out like a rose. "Though a choker would be adaquate – or better yet, a collar - "

"Arsehole," she growled, jabbing an elbow into his ribs. Everything looked good – in a rather funereal sort of way – except for that goddamned hickey he'd left on her neck, and shit, if she had to go the rest of the day without hiding it she'd die from being ribbed to hell and back by her coworkers. "You twit."

"My pleasure."

* * *


	3. Chapter 3

Title: Crystal'verse Drabbles  
Author: diayang  
Rating: T  
Pairing: Barricade/OC  
Summary: Life goes on. Sort of.  
Disclaimer: Transformers © Hasbro/Dreamworks.  
A/N: Quick and dirty drabble(s).

* * *

When Barricade rounded the corner, the first thing he did when the familiar form showed up on his sensor sweep was to freeze, almost imperceptibly – then prowl forward with an alarming intensity, a clear sense of threat/protection/worry visible in the way the car perched on its shocks, like a cat on alert walking on its toes. The street held all the usual, intermittent bustle of urban pedestrian life in a more residential area; suits and jogging clothes, crisply ironed linens and ragged denim. They passed with only the briefest flicker of eyes over the cop who emerged from the Saleen parked across the street; he slammed the door shut and jogged across, picking his way to a woman who sat slumped at the foot of the steps leading to an apartment foyer.

They moved on; he didn't.

"You slacking off work?" he jabbed, the wormy little threads of worry unusually harsh around his spark. Calleigh – his Calleigh – lifted her head, hands folded in her lap.

"Quit," she rasped, the tone of her voice distorted from crying and some other emotion, eyes slightly blank, studying the form of the black car across the street more than the cop hovering over her. "Couldn't take it – the gossip and the talk."

"And here I thought you placed money-making and your job over even me," 'Cade snarked, sarcasm clear in his tone. Slag. Calle not yelling at him was a little like the Pits freezing over. The black-haired woman simply shook her head and pushed to her feet, dusting off her skirt. "It's done. I don't care to go back there – see all the catty bitchiness." And the talk that went on, oh, the talk. Calleigh shrugged, turned to him. Despite everything – his asshole jerk qualities, the insistence and the gruff bullying manner that was Barricade – he'd been a constant. A pain in her ass, but still an eerily consistent presence that had yet to fail her. And he wasn't failing her now.

"Can – can we go for a drive?" she husked quietly, leaning into the space between her and the holoform, eyes wide. Sharp eyes, almost red, peered down at her, the slightly too thin lips compressed, his expression softening for the barest fraction of a second before it settled back into the faint sneer he could never hide from her.

Across the street, 'Cade's lights flashed briefly.

"Yeah. C'mon."


End file.
